This thesis is a study of the transition from Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon culture in East Anglia from the mid fourth to the mid seventh century, and of the origins of the kingdom of the East Angles. It combines three types of evidence: archaeology, place-names and written sources. It aims to test the validity of this kind of multidisciplinary regional study. The first part of the thesis concerns material culture, and consists of a thorough investigation of the region's archaeological material from the late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, focusing on the latest Romano-British evidence and earliest Germanic evidence. The early Anglo-Saxon-period population is characterised as heterogeneous, and the pays is posited as the most useful way of drawing distinctions within it. The second part looks at the linguistic evidence contained within the region's place-name corpus, and argues for the presence of a significant British element within the early "Anglo-Saxon" population. A comparison of the two types of evidence broadly confirms orthodox notions concerning Old English place-name chronology, although substantial intra-regional variation is highlighted. The third part collates evidence for the origins of the kingdom of the East Angles, and suggests that this variety was an important influence on its formation.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This thesis is an attempt to define the role of the circus and crescent relative to their influence upon British town planning. In this study both of these forms have been examined in light of their spiritual and aesthetic qualities, not only isolated, self-sustaining structures, but as nuclei of a greater urban organization. The unique contribution made by these forms upon British town planning during the 18th and 19th centuries can be seen in the appearance of the free space-form, a totally new concept in the articulation of exterior urban space. The dissertation does not pretend to be an exhaustive chronological history of the circus and crescent from their inception at Bath during the 18th century. Instead, the author has examined certain examples of these forms which have been principally characterized by the exploitation of free space in the urban scene, and which have influenced the directional continuum in the formation of urban space [TRUNCATED]

This thesis examines the development of mental health activism in the women’s movement in England from the establishment of the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) in 1968 until the end of the first nationwide charity campaign to focus on women and mental health, MIND’s Stress on Women, in 1994. Constructing in-depth case studies, this thesis assesses the assumption in the late 1960s and early 1970s that consciousness-raising facilitated women’s positive mental health, examines the formation of the London Women’s Liberation Workshop Psychology Group, traces the development of the Women’s Therapy Centre in London, and explores how the mental health charity MIND increasingly utilised and popularised women’s movement ideas and approaches across the 1980s and 1990s. In doing so, it explores how women’s movement mental health activists increasingly aligned feminist critiques of psychiatry and psychology, with the positive promotion of psychotherapy. Existing accounts of women’s movement mental health activism focus on the rejection of psychology and psychotherapy by its members. This thesis highlights how women’s movement members established community-based organisations and grassroots self-help groups to bolster their understandings of themselves and their political affiliations, and to support women experiencing mental health concerns and emotional distress. It therefore produces a more expansive understanding of the development of the personal politics integral to the women’s movement, challenges the popular narrative that women’s movement organisations became depoliticised in the 1980s, and documents the previously unexplored contribution of the women’s movement to the development of radical therapy networks and community-based mental health care in late twentieth-century England.

This thesis builds on quantitative British politics scholarship with four papers unified by a strong emphasis on positivist theory, research design and cutting edge statistical methodology. I examine political behaviour among representatives in the UK's House of Commons and voting behaviour in the 2016 EU Referendum. I show that the UK parliamentary system's reliance on strong party discipline has important adverse consequences for public approval. Firstly, I show how high-salience debates such Prime Minister's Questions bring out the worst behaviours in MPs. As parties' access to the floor (ability to make speeches) is reduced, MP behaviour becomes more aggressive. Secondly, with co-authors, I examine the conditions under which ideologically extreme MPs are more likely to vote against their party. We find that the impact of such behaviour affects party unity more often when in government, meaning that parties are more likely to appear united until they elected, at which point party divides become more apparent once again. Thirdly, I show that career progression in the House of Commons rewards 'insider' behaviour such as increased attendance and participation in House of Commons debate and a focus on national rather than local issues. The power political parties have over the future of political leadership tends to centralise power and reward party politicians to whom the general public feels no strong affinity. In the final paper, we analyse voting behaviour during the 2016 EU Referendum assessing the potential effect of rainfall on the referendum result. We find that if the referendum had occurred on a sunny day, the likely result would have widened the margin of victory for Vote Leave. In the most comprehensive statistical analysis of the referendum to date, we concur with earlier analyses that that the surprise result was driven by strong Brexit support in districts of economic and social deprivation, particularly in rural and suburban locations.

This thesis is an examination of several local families and their role shaping the palatinate of Durham’s position within the early Tudor state. Histories of the late medieval and early Tudor bishopric have tended to treat the palatinate as either an intractable obstacle to the consolidation of the English state, or as a highly distinctive and autonomous seat of power in the North-East, free from any meaningful encroachment by the crown. This thesis reframes Durham within the wider context of advancements in the early Tudor state and, particularly, more recent discussions on the nature and efficacy of patron-client or patronage networks. The central themes of this thesis are threefold. First, rather than see the history of Durham, its bishops, and landowners as a pitched battle against crown intervention, this thesis posits a new interpretation, one which foregrounds cooperation and mutual benefit. Early Tudor attitudes towards Durham were, for the most part, not grounded on a desire to abolish or undermine the bishopric and its political and administrative infrastructure. Where Durham’s resources could be applied for the betterment of the national polity, successive governments sought to work with, not against, the region’s landowners and officers, who in turn realised the benefits to be had from forging contacts with the court and other senior royal officials. Second, this increasingly pragmatic stance was nurtured through the formation and consolidation of patronage networks. It was through these symbiotic networks that both the crown and local landowners changed the nature of the bishopric’s role within the national polity; much like neighbouring Yorkshire, patron-client networks had the effect of bringing Durham more closely into line with central government, but not necessarily to the detriment of local customs and ideas of government. Finally, by examining the role of local landowners from outside the bishopric, in conjunction with Durham’s leading families and the bishops’ episcopal households, this thesis argues that the palatinate formed part of what was a highly effective regional community.

The last two decades have seen major interventions in naturalisation legislation across much of the ‘industrialised’ world, with successive UK administrations introducing and refining citizenship tests, language proficiency requirements, and ceremonial performances in an explicit bid to elevate the acquisition of citizen-status from a ‘right’ to a ‘privilege’ (Home Office, 2013a). In this thesis, I draw on theorisations of the border as a geopolitical, a biopolitical, and a ‘neuropolitical’ (Isin, 2004) phenomenon, and thus conceptualise these newly-instituted ‘citizenisation’ (Fortier, 2017) processes as a political project, as part of an assemblage of bordering practices through which to heighten and manage the anxieties of the neurotic subject within the securitised state, and to realise the nation state in domopolitical terms as a home (Walters, 2004). While discourse researchers have certainly provided much important empirical insight into the strategies employed in contemporary citizenship documentation, and in the broader discursive contexts in which these citizenship regimes are situated (e.g. Wodak et al, 2009; Löwenheim and Gazit, 2009), I argue that the citizenship regime cannot be understood as wholly constituted through the linguistic practices of élite policy and media actors, but should instead be conceptualised more broadly as discursive practice: as a complex set of linguistic, material, and symbolic practices. From this premise, I situate my research within a particular local context, drawing together a data set which takes into account policy documents and testing materials, observations of testing and ceremonial rituals, and interviews with twenty actors involved in the production of the citizenship regime, including citizenship officials and recent and prospective citizens. Articulating themes across the data set, I look to the ways in which both the state and the Good citizen-subject are performed and secured within this discursive landscape, and find important moments of disruption and contestation to this dominant discursive formation.

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This thesis is an intellectual history of James Mill's political thought, which focuses on four specific topics: his ideas on parliamentary reform; on libel law, or the freedom of the press; education, or man's ability to utilise his reason; and on established religion, primarily in the form of Mill's attitude towards the Church of England. At face-value, the thesis' main aim is to contextualize in detail Mill's published writings on these four subjects (which comprise its four chapters) by virtue of comparing them with unpublished manuscript material present in his common place books, which were transcribed as part of this PhD project. Although the chapters are developed in such a way that they can be seen as independent studies of Mill's thought, there are of course more general themes which run through the thesis as a whole, as well as specific links between particular topics. One notable example is the notion that Mill employed ‘dissimulation' in his published writings, that is to say that he did not necessarily express in public the full extent of his ideas, because of a fear that their radical extent would attract intrigue or prosecution from the reactionary governmental or religious authorities in Britain. It is also prudent to note how Mill's well-documented intellectual influences are incorporated into the thesis. By this we are referring to the importance of the Scottish Enlightenment background to Mill's own education and upbringing near Aberdeen and in Edinburgh, and also the doctrine of Utilitarianism he adopted from Jeremy Bentham once in London. The particular nature of the material found in the common place books warrants a full re-evaluation of these influences, as well as an exploration of the possibility that additional influences beyond these two contexts have thus far been understated in studies of Mill. This suggests the value of the study to current Mill scholarship.

That the public distrusts politicians is prevalent in both polling and academic literature (Uberoi & Apostolova, 2017; van der Meer, 2017; YouGov, 2017a, 2017b). Whether it's true that politicians cannot actually be trusted is really immaterial. If McCombs (2004) and Lippman (1922) are correct, and the media has an enormous impact on public opinion simply by establishing this dire narrative, then the perception of mistrust has become fact. Citizens are disengaged, misinformed, and weary. Politicians issue statements to meet political expediencies. Trust is a critical component of democracy, and only by behaving in a substantively new manner can politicians restore it. The irony is that this image cannot be artificially constructed; they must behave naturally and re-introduce themselves to a public sceptical of media training and spin. To restore trust they must present themselves as they truly are. They must behave authentically. This thesis examines the tweets made by UK MPs during 2011 and 2012 (n=774,467) for evidence of authenticity and establishes behavioural models that identify authentic talk in large Twitter datasets. The analytical .framework that defines authenticity and informs the content analysis is broadly based on the prior work examining authentic behaviour in reality TV conducted by Coleman (2006) that reveals performative characteristics that audiences are drawn to; Hall's (2009) examination of the good and bad effects of mediated communication on reality TV audiences; Liebes's (2001) examination of sincerity and humility in the performance of authenticity by politicians; Montgomery's (2001b) work examining the presence of authenticity in the press behaviour of UK MPs and his examination of Goffman's relevance to mediated communication (Montgomery, 2001a). This study also challenges Goffman's Dramaturgical theory which positions public communication either on stage or backstage by suggesting that the backstage is now performed onstage (Goffman, 1959, 1981). Additionally, this content analysis is informed by Henneberg and Scammell's examination of how competing perceptions of democratic theory can be used to evaluate a politician's political marketing techniques (Henneberg, Scammell, & O'Shaughnessy, 2009) and positions the behavioural models within these techniques. It is also important to note that the 774,467 tweets subjected to a quantitative and qualitative content analysis, as far as can be established, is the only large-scale longitudinal study of parliamentary Twitter behaviour.

This research contributes to the growing subfield of ideational political economy, by developing a theory of narrative in economic policymaking. Economic policymakers operate under conditions of perpetual uncertainty, but must achieve and project certitude in order to support confidence, and as a basis for policy. This dilemma is principally resolved through the construction of economic narratives: causal stories that mobilise a set of economic ideas in order to define the economy, its relationship to policy, and its expected future trajectory. Such narratives should be understood as social constructions, not as projections of, or diversions from, the material facts. However they are vulnerable to events that fall outside their account of the economy, a vulnerability which tends to increase with time. Constructivist political economy has historically been oriented more to the explanation of change than continuity. The resilience of neoliberal policy frameworks through the crisis of 2008 has therefore posed challenges for a subfield that has tended to treat ideas and discourse as a source of creative political agency, and a counterweight to the conservatism of interests and institutions. The thesis presents a case study of the New Labour government of the UK (1997-2010) in which ideas and narrative are shown to be largely changeresistant, generating political, and to some extent policy, continuity through crisis. The case study disaggregates two properties of economic policy narratives: internal validity, which is concerned with consistency and coherence, and external validity, which relates to the perceived external conditions. By tracing the evolution of the two validities across the lifetime of an economic narrative, we see that rhetorics which begin as the expression of political agency evolve, over time, into structural conditions that impose powerful cognitive and ideological constraints on their narrators. A theory of the life-cycle of economic policy narratives is proposed, comprised of four evolutionary phases: construction, reinforcement, crisis and fragmentation.